We vehemently disagree with the opinion-informed report in The Nation Newspaper of yesterday Tuesday, November 22, 2016, on pages 2 and 3, which awards exactly the number of local governments APC is sure of winning to another party parading a Journey Man of a candidate who has operated in three parties in four months, and has pseudopodic ties with the ownership of The Nation.
We concede that outside some recognizable pressures which the newspaper faces now, The Nation remains a good newspaper that we have worked in the past and will work again with now and in future, as long as it is spared the fate of Concord Newspapers of the post June 12, 1993 election annulment crisis.
It will be a great disservice to the Nigerian people if we allow what is obvious to all objective observers as a wishful thought line of interested few to pass off as a field report for the gubernatorial elections in a state now looking good for an APC rescue led by Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN (Aketi) as real views from The Sunshine State indicate.
As opposed to the two local governments ALLOCATED to APC in the office-generated report which is a follow-up to another from the same stable on Saturday November 19, 2016 APC will win the election convincingly in 11 out of the 18 LGAs and marginally in three to sweep clean to Ondo State Government House.
The Nation report of November 22, 2016 acknowledges this in part:
‘The party (APC) was originally tipped to win the election, but the crisis that arose from the shadow poll compelled Oke to dump the platform’, writes Raymond Mordi ,Deputy Political Editor of The Nation in the supporting report of the questioned electoral map on pages2 and 3 of that edition, without support reports from reporters in the field or quotes from any living thing.
We also do not agree that a political party whose candidature is in dispute in the court should stay out of reckoning, if only the projections derive from the field, because legal lines are not political lines.
We state categorically that there is no crisis in APC, but there are noticeable steps by a few influential persons who disagree with the position of the party, as espoused by the National Executive Committee (NEC), acting through the National Working Committee (NWC) to elevate their anti-party kpurukere movement into a national issue, which it is not.
If the facts are wrong, the inference also ought to be misplaced.
Not even the unlawful violent interventions flashing on our radar, planned and spear-headed by the governor of a neighbouring South West state, who caused a judge to be beaten to assume power, can stop the elections results from proving that.
Wole Oke was not a member of APC until two months to the Primaries. The fact that he did not come second in the well-organized primaries and credible primaries, which attempt to controvert proved abortive,and could not have emerged APC candidate even if Akeredolu did not emerge tops shows that he was brought to APC to perpetrate a predetermined agenda, and is in this race to serve the interest of renegade elements with PDP inclination.
We do not necessarily agree that APC primaries must be won by a particular aspirant with the support of a particular stakeholder for it to be considered ‘amicably resolved’, because APC is guided by laws and rules that outlaw imposition of candidates.
Rather, it is our take that those who occupy leadership positions ought to lead by example and in unison, we and the wise voters of Ondo State, who in any case want to be free from external controls do not expect any less from APC leaders whose candidates were not favoured in the Ondo State primaries and any other one in future.
Once again, we restate our informed disagreement with The Nation election projections, as we did with Vanguard’s projections of the 2015 Presidential Polls, and urge readers to look beyond that report for reliable information on Ondo State elections.
Engr. Yahaya Bashir North West
Fortune Panebi South South
Auwal Aliyu Jalla North East
Sola Lawal South West
Usman Adaji North Central
Arc. Okelo Madukaife South East, Secretary
Engr. Joe Igbokwe Chairman
Awka. November 23, 2016
